White House insists Flynn resigned because of 'trust' issue, not legal problem

White House press secretary Sean Spicer spent much of his Tuesday
press briefing insisting that Michael Flynn resigned from his
post as national security adviser Monday because of a "trust"
issue, and not due to a legal problem.

"There's nothing that the general did that was a violation of any
sort," Spicer said. "What this came down to was a matter of
trust."

Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, resigned Monday after
just three weeks on the job following a series of bombshell
reports that surfaced about his communications with a Russian
ambassador prior to President Donald Trump taking office.

Multiple outlets reported Monday that former acting Attorney
General Sally Yates and a senior career national security
official told Donald McGahn, White House counsel, in late January
about strong concerns related to Flynn's contacts with Russian
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Yates said she believed Flynn
misled senior administration officials about his December phone call with the ambassador,
during which Flynn
reportedly urged Kislyak to not overreact to the latest round
of sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama, who levied them
in response to Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

The acting attorney general warned that Flynn was perhaps
vulnerable to Russian blackmail, sources told The Washington Post. Flynn had told Vice
President Mike Pence that he did not discuss the Obama
administration's sanctions on Russia with Kislyak. Pence later
repeated Flynn's claim in a CBS News interview.

When the stories began to break last week about the
existence of transcripts of the calls, Flynn backtracked and said
he could not be sure of what was discussed.

Additionally, it was reported by The New York Times Tuesday that the FBI
interviewed Flynn during his first days in the White House.

Spicer said trust had been "eroded" between Flynn and the
president. He added the administration has "been reviewing
and evaluating this issue with respect to Gen. Flynn on a
daily basis for a few weeks trying to ascertain the truth." That
included whether Flynn misled Pence.

In addition to the phone call with Kislyak, Spicer said
there were "a serious number of other instances" involving Flynn
that contributed to the dwindling trust of him by the
administration, but he did not outline what those instances were.

The White House press secretary, contradicting the statements
from other top administration officials from earlier, said Trump
asked for Flynn's resignation, not that Flynn offered to resign
on his own.

U.S.
Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn looks at U.S.
President-elect Donald Trump as he talks with the media at
Mar-a-Lago estate where Trump attends meetings, in Palm Beach,
Florida, U.S., December 21, 2016.REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Asked about when Trump was first notified of the
late-January warning by Yates to McGahn about Flynn,
Spicer said the president was made aware "immediately." The White
House then had McGahn review the situation, Spicer said, to see
if any legal problems were afoot. The White House determined
there were not.

"When the president heard the information as presented by White
House counsel, he instinctively thought Gen. Flynn did not
do anything wrong and the White House counsel’s review
corroborated that,” Spicer said.

A
report from NBC News on Tuesday cited two Trump
administration sources who said Pence was informed about the
Justice Department's assessments on February 9 — 15 days after
Trump and the White House were briefed.

Others were not as certain that the discussion between Flynn and
Kislyak was completely legal if the possible removal of
sanctions were discussed. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said "there are
potential criminal violations here," and politicians on both
sides of the aisle have asked for further questioning of Flynn,
possibly embarking on an investigation into
his Russian correspondences.

Trump did not advise Flynn to discuss the sanctions with
Kislyak, Spicer said in the press briefing, adding that Trump
"had no problem with the fact that he [Flynn] acted in accord to
what his job was to be doing."

"Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very
smart!" Trump tweeted on December 30 after Russian President
Vladimir Putin decided not to retaliate for the sanctions
placed on his country the day before by the Obama
administration. Flynn and Kislyak reportedly spoke several times on December
29 following the announcement of the new sanctions.

When asked Friday about the Post story that Flynn had misled
administration officials about the content of his conversations
with the Russian ambassador, Trump said he did not know of the
story.

"I haven't seen it," he told reporters on Air Force One. "What
report is that? I haven't seen that. I'll look into that."

Spicer clarified Tuesday that Trump was only speaking about
the Post story, not about the overall situation surrounding
Flynn.

"The irony of this entire situation is that the president has
been incredibly tough on Russia," Spicer said, pointing to some
of the Trump administration's early moves in office.